Brave New World

Would a future totalitarian society be all that bad if every single person - from the day they were born - was truly happy with their lot in life? That is the question Brave New World asks, and Aldous Huxley leaves it up to the reader to decide the answer. I've re-read this book several times and each time I'm glad I did. That is because it is an enjoyable story, first and foremost. The characters have sufficient depth, the locales are peculiar and attention-grabbing, and the underlying message is enough to make you stop and think. Brave New World revolves around three main characters. First, there's Bernard Marx, an elite "Alpha Plus" who is uncertain about how he fits into society. Then, there is Mustapha Mond, the World Controller for Western Europe, a man who reads The Holy Bible and Shakespeare, despite his society's ban on these "pornographic books". Finally, we have John (named John Savage when he visits Bernard's world), the son of two World State citizens raised in the remote hostility of a Savage Reservation. The interactions and thoughts of these three characters forms the skeleton of the book, and it is through their eyes that we view the World State of the future. The reader learns about how babies are "decanted" in the future, how they are bred and conditioned for their role in society, how entertainment plays a role in keeping them happy, and how unhappiness can be quickly whisked away by a gramme of Soma, a powerful drug that has no debilitating side-effects. Of course, it would be easy for the author to jab his finger at you from the pages and scream "SEE?!? SEE?!?! See what a society without freedom looks like? Isn't it horrible?", but he doesn't. In fact, the world of Year of Our Ford 632 doesn't seem so bad at all when you consider disease, war, and unhappiness have all been snuffed out of existence. But at what cost? Midway through the book, we meet John. Biologically, a son of the World State, but philosophically a student of the old religions and old literature of the old world. But don't misunderstand. John is not necessarily the book's "everyman". Many of his emotions and actions (like self-flagellation) are still foreign to a modern reader. Bernard - who has at this point accepted that he is "different" compared to his fellow World State-ers - brings John to his home to show him off to his peers. Naturally, many aspects of the World State are appalling to John, and this conflict continues all the way to the book's conclusion. Something I found remarkable is that the author, Huxley, gives us plenty of chances to sympathize with many of the various characters. Bernard Marx is not the "good guy" nor the "bad guy". In another story, the World Controller Mond might have been the evil villain trying to destroy any freedom, and John Savage might have been the passionate hero who wins the pretty girl and ultimately brings that freedom to society. But none of this occurs. The characters in Brave New World are just people, thrust into a world of perfect happiness and perfect harmony, and they each react in their own way. Sure, it's cute to see how the author envisioned the future, and perhaps a bit scary to see some of his "predictions" coming true, but that isn't what makes this book great. What makes it great is that it allows the reader to come to his/her own conclusions. To you, perhaps the World State seems terrifying, or maybe it seems like a nice place to live. To you, perhaps John Savage is the hero, or perhaps the logic and compassion in Mustapha Mond's final words and final actions resonate with you more. Maybe you can relate best to Bernard Marx's flawed personality. I suppose the choice is really yours, because Huxley doesn't make that choice for you. A lot of people say that the story is about entertainment media taking over our society, or about drugs, or about a controlling government, or about morality. I don't think Huxley intended the book to be exclusively about any one of those things, although of course the book makes a statement about them all. As stated above, Brave New World lets you draw your own conclusions about the World State instead of trying to grab you by the collar while screaming "SEE?!? SEE?!? See how horrible a world full of drugs and genetic manipulation would be?" Now, I rate this book a full 5 stars, but here is the "but..." of the review. For the majority of the book, we are treated to a fascinating romp through future science, future sociology, and future beliefs. However, toward the end of the book, John and Mustapha Mond engage in a very lengthy conversation about society and morals and God. To me, I really enjoyed this part. It was a great answer to my lingering question of "Why did society become this way?". To others, it might come off as a preachy, show-offy exposition from Huxley's own heart. Mustapha makes a point about human psychology, and John counters with Shakespeare. Mustapah points to the World State's "happiness", and John counters with God. Mustapha talks about bliss, and John talks about struggling for joy. I enjoyed it, but you might not, especially since it breaks away from the overall pace and feel of the rest of the book. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading. It can be finished by a diligent reader in a weekend, and it contains a lot of thought-provoking ideas that will stick with you long after the final page.

Before there was ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Bladerunner’, before there was even ‘1984’, there was 'Brave New World'. It is astonishing that Aldous Huxley wrote this tale of technological dystopia in 1932. The social elements from the story are similar to those in Orwell and Kafka and others, namely a society of obedient sheep run by the state and benevolent dictators through brainwashing and groupthink. But what’s striking about the novel is how it so astutely anticipates a society taken over by benevolent technocrats rather than politicians, a scenario that appears increasingly likely in the age of AI and genetic engineering. Huxley came from an illustrious scientific family with social connections. His grandfather was Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin’s close friend, publicist and “bulldog”, whose famous smackdown of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce has been relished by rationalists fighting against religious faith ever since. His brother was Julian Huxley, a famous biologist who among other accomplishments wrote a marvelous tome on everything that was then known about biology with H. G. Wells. Steeped in scientific as well as social discourse, possessing a deep knowledge of medical and other scientific research, Aldous was in an ideal position to write a far-reaching novel. This he duly did. The basic premise of the novel sounds eerily prescient. Sometime in the near future, society has been regimented into a caste system where people are genetically engineered by the state in large state-run reproductive farms. Anticipating ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, only a select few women and men are capable of providing fertile eggs and sperm for this careful social engineering. The higher castes are strong, intelligent and charismatic. The lower castes are turgid, obedient and physically weak. They don’t begrudge those from the upper castes because their genetic engineering has largely removed their propensity toward jealousy and violence. Most notably, because reproduction is now the responsibility of the state, there is no longer a concept of a family, of a father or mother. There is knowledge of these concepts, but it’s regarded as archaic history from a past era and is met with revulsion. How is this population kept under control? Not shockingly at all, through sex, drugs and rock and roll. Promiscuity is encouraged from childhood onwards and is simply a way of life, and everyone sleeps with everyone else, again without feeling jealousy or resentment (it was this depiction of promiscuity that led the book to be banned in India in the 60s). They flood their bodies with a drug called soma whenever they feel any kind of negative emotion welling up inside and party like there’s no end. They are brainwashed into believing the virtues of these and other interventions by the state through subliminal messages played when they are sleeping; such unconscious brainwashing goes all the way back to their birth. People do die, but out of sight, and when they are still looking young and attractive. Death is little more than a nuisance, a slight distraction from youth, beauty and fun. Like Neo from ‘The Matrix’, one particular citizen of this society named Bernard Marx starts feeling that there is more to the world than would be apparent from this state of induced bliss. On a tryst with a particularly attractive member of his caste in an Indian reservation in New Mexico, he comes across a man referred to as the savage. The savage is the product of an illegitimate encounter (back when there were parents) between a member of a lower caste and the Director of Hatcheries who oversees all the controlled reproduction. He has grown up without any of the enlightened instruments of the New World, but his mother has kept a copy of Shakespeare with her so he knows all of Shakespeare by heart and frequently quotes it. Marx brings the savage back to his society. The rest of the book describes the savage’s reaction to this supposed utopia and its ultimately tragic consequences. Ultimately he concludes that it’s better to have free will and feel occasionally unhappy, resentful and angry than live in a society where free will is squelched and the population is kept bathed in an induced state of artificial happiness. The vision of technological control in the novel is sweeping and frighteningly prescient. There is the brainwashing and complacent submission to the status quo that everyone undergoes which is similar to the messages provided in modern times by TV, social media and the 24-hour news cycle. There are the chemical and genetic interventions made by the state right in the embryonic stage to make sure that the embryos grow up with desired physical or mental advantages or deficiencies. These kinds of interventions are the exact kind feared by those wary of CRISPR and other genetic editing technologies. Finally, keeping the population preoccupied, entertained and away from critical thinking through sex and promiscuity is a particularly potent form of societal control that has been appreciated well by Victoria’s Secret, and that will not end with developments in virtual reality. In some sense, Huxley completely anticipates the social problems engendered by the technological takeover of human jobs by robots and AI. Once human beings are left with nothing to do, how does the state ensure that they are prevented from becoming bored and restless and causing all kinds of trouble? In his book “Homo Deus”, Yuval Harari asks the same questions and concludes that a technocratic society will come up with distractions like virtual reality video games, new psychoactive drugs and novel forms of sexual entertainment that will keep the vast majority of unemployed from becoming bored and potentially hostile. I do not know whether Harari read Huxley, but I do feel more frightened by Huxley than by Harari. One reason I feel more frightened is because of what he leaves out; the book was published in 1932, so it omits any discussion of nuclear weapons which were invented ten years later. The combination of nuclear weapons with limitless societal control through technology makes for a particularly combustible mix. The biggest prediction of Huxley’s dystopia, and one distinctly different from that made by Orwell or Kafka, is that instead of a socialist state, people’s minds are much more likely to be controlled in the near future by the leaders of technology companies like Google and Facebook who have formed an unholy nexus with the government. With their social media alerts and Fitbits and maps, the tech companies are increasingly telling us how to live our lives and distracting us from free thinking. Instead of communist regimes like the Soviet Union forcibly trampling on individual choice and liberty, we are already gently but willingly ceding our choices, privacy and liberties to machines and algorithms developed by these companies. And just like the state in Huxley and Orwell’s works, the leaders of these corporations will tell us why it’s in our best interests to let technology control our lives and freedom, when all the while it would really be in their best interests to tell us this. Our capitulation to their inventions will look helpful and voluntary and will feel pleasurable and even noble, but it will be no less complete than the capitulation of every individual in “Brave New World” or “1984”. The only question is, will there be any savages left among us to tell us how foolishly we are behaving?

Pros: A classic that holds up, font and text is clearly readable, the introduction is brief an concise. Cons: From the pictures on Amazon page you cannot clearly tell that the illustration on the hard cover is not engraved into the book itself but just a dusk jacket. I have not found anything in description on the Amazon page that specifies otherwise . For a 90th Anniversary Edition I expected a more premium care/build of the book.

Perfeito!

Estupendo libro, leanlo

Bardzo fajne wydanie.

Huxley imagines a future where control doesn’t come from fear, but from comfort. No Big Brother screaming at you—just endless pleasure, distraction, consumption, and chemically engineered happiness. No books to burn, because no one wants to read. No repression, because desire itself has been redesigned. It’s chilling in the quietest possible way. Huxley’s warning isn’t about losing freedom violently, but about trading it away willingly, in exchange for comfort and stability. Re-reading it now feels less like revisiting a classic and more like holding up a mirror. Orwell warned us about power that hurts. Huxley warned us about power that seduces. And yes—small but important detail—the hardcover edition is nice. Clean design, compact and pleasant in the hands. A lovely object that contains a deeply uncomfortable idea.